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Notes from the Field

CYGNSS Progress Report and Year-end Reflections

December 27th, 2016 by Mary Morris

As the year comes to a close, I’m probably not the only one looking back at how 2016 panned out. For the CYGNSS team, we ended 2016 with a lot of excitement, after carefully and patiently working on pre-launch development for the past few years. It takes a long time to develop things in careful and systematic way, and now we get to look at the on-orbit data to make sure everything makes sense.

As of December 21, all eight satellites continue to be healthy. The engineering commissioning phase continues slowly but surely, so that we can transition into science operations soon. I know the entire science team is excited for this, but we will continue to be patient.

On a more personal note, I am also reflecting on a busy December. After attending the CYGNSS launch, I flew back to Ann Arbor to defend my Ph.D. dissertation—successfully, I might add! I’m currently working through the edits to my dissertation so that I can hit the ground running as a research fellow when I get back to Ann Arbor after a much-needed winter break with my family. With all of the excitement of December, I don’t think I’ve fully realized that my graduate school career is over. Most students don’t experience a satellite launch and a Ph.D. defense within a week of each other … and I’m not sure I would recommend that schedule to others! As I reflect on my graduate school journey, I’m glad all of my hard work has paid off, and I’m looking forward to new exciting moments as I further my career. I’ll always remember December 2016 as one of the busiest and most exciting times of my life. Here’s to more adventures in Earth science!

My first time at John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC), and hopefully not my last!